Agricultrual animals have been fed for centuries by grazing and periodic feeding of harvested feeds in feed troughs and bunks in which the feed is simultaneously available to all animals. Such methods are still adequate where feed costs are low.
However, where the feed costs are high, production efficiency must be improved by feeding to maximize production for each animal.
Although each animal could be separately isolated and individually fed, such a feeding technique would require very high labor expenses and a significant investment in equipment.
One advance towards the solution of this problem is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,850,145 to David A. Yoder, et al. In this system supplemental feeding is available to selected animals. Each selected animal wears a tag suspended from its neck. Supplemental feeders are stationed in the feed lot and are actuated to supply feed when an animal wearing a tag inserts its head into the feeder. The presence of the tag is sensed and actuates the feeder.
However, such a feeding system is limited because all the tags are identical and the detecting unit of the feeder merely detects the presence or absence of the tag. Thus, all selected animals are given the same supplemental feed. Additionally, there is no feed limitation so that the selected animals have available all the feed they choose while non-selected animals have no supplemental feed available to them.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an agricultural livestock feeding system which allows the farmer to predetermine the feed ration to be made available each day for each individual animal. The apparatus individually identifies each animal which presents itself to the feeder and makes available to that animal the amount of feed chosen by the farmer for that particular animal. The apparatus also stores data representing the cumulative total of feed provided to an animal in a selected time period and makes no further feed available during the time period after the selected ration for that animal has been consumed. In this manner the production efficiency of each individual animal may be controlled with precision and optimized.
It is another object of the invention to provide an identification system having durable identification tags which are entirely passive and thus are inexpensive and not subject to failure due to thermal, mechanical and electrical stress to the extent of tags containing active devices and batteries. Such tags provide reliable data over a long lifetime.
Another object of the invention is to provide an identification system which does not require a close tolerance mating or registration between the identification tags and the detecting unit.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a sensing system which is both inexpensive and reliable.
Yet another object of the invention is to construct a magnetic sensing utilizing reed switches and to use them in a manner which eliminates the possibility of inactive dead spots and which permits adjustment of the reed switches so that all will close with approximately the same magnetic field from the tag.